He has covered shoes in gold studs (a recent boot brought to mind anabacus), dotted them with googly eyes (he got the idea from a greeting card), and topped them with plumes (a pointy-toed stiletto looks as if it had tussled with Tweety Bird).
But for the most part, the ancient tool has been replaced with electronic calculators and computers--even though an experienced abacus user can often compute sums more quickly than your average Joe with a calculator.